Posts Tagged ‘Organic Farming’

Here’s a recent newsletter segment from the CIEE Service-Learning Program in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Our fellow Thai farmer, Mike Aguilar, is facilitating and organizing with study abroad students and farmers in the Dominican Republic. Mike worked together with the AAN to promote fair trade rice, organic agriculture, student activism and solidarity with peoples’ movements in northeast Thailand. Thanks to the CIEE students for their contribution. Farmers and eaters from diverse parts of the world can only gain from exchanging information and experiences.

Another great new profile by Kate Cooney, a student from the Fall 2010 CIEE Khon Kaen semester program.

A ‘Natural’ Transition: One small-scale farmer’s smooth transition into organic, chemical-free agricultural production

Katie Cooney

“Actually it is not that difficult,” Mai assured. “The first year I questioned myself. I worried I would not have anything to eat at all. But the second year the crops were so beautiful.” Read the rest of this entry »

Dear readers – here is our summer intern’s first post! Abe Levine, a student from the CIEE Khon Kaen study abroad program and Macaelester College, will be supporting the AAN’s Yasothon Green Market and website for the next few months. Abe is fresh off a semester of learning and living with villagers and has spent the past weeks working in the fields and getting to know our network’s farmers better.

O June 6th, farmers from 15 villagers gathered to create an action plan directed towards promoting sustainable organic agriculture. Farmers sat in a circle, classroom style, at the learning center in Kudchum province, Yasothon, prepared to share their stories and offer each other feedback. Paw Lan (Dow Ruung Peht Pon) began the meeting by asking three questions:

1.) What problems are we experiencing?

2.) What can we do about them?

3.) What outputs can we expect from these solutions?

A number of farmers expressed that their neighboring villagers who do chemical farming embrace the mentality that organic farming requires too much physical labor, that there are too many steps involved. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Andrew Korfhage for visiting Rice Fund Surin and writing this story:

True confession: Before I started working at Green America almost seven years ago, I had never heard of the Fair Trade movement. In my interview with our Green Business Network director Denise Hamler, in fact, I got confused and accidentally called it “free trade.”

But like many conscious consumers who aren’t yet connected to the Fair Trade movement per se, I was already deeply interested in the concept of making sure that the products I buy are traded fairly – that producers at the beginning of the supply chain make a decent wage, that the products that pass through my hands on a daily basis aren’t tainted with the suffering of others. It’s part of why I wanted to work for Green America in the first place, because the definition of “green” should always be about the health of both people and the planet. Read the rest of this entry »

Last September, my housemate came home from the superstore Costco with a sack of rice. We were all excited to have this seemingly endless supply—of jasmine, no less—for a cheap price. For the next four months, the rice sat prominently on the kitchen floor and was measured into puddings, curries and stirfrys for ten ravenous people. Looking back, I realize there is no way it was not Jasmine 105, the “improved” variety of rice that has taken over much of Thailand’s farmland. Read the rest of this entry »

On the occasion of the World Food Day, agro-industry proposes a second green revolution based on genetic engineering. This suits their interests but does not contribute to feeding the poor. Organic Agriculture based on its encouraging concepts, experience and examples proposes a paradigm-shift in food security policies to ensure that hunger is history by 2050.

In 2009, the number of undernourished people reached one billion, three quarters of them live in rural areas . This is more than ever before. Despite the fact that the world produces 125% of the required food for all, 15% of people are hungry; and most of them are women and children. Global agriculture production today fails to feed the world’s poorest people since they lack access to income and resources such as fertile land, water, seeds and knowledge for a farming system adapted to local conditions and the demands of markets. The green revolution accomplished a lot but failed to combat hunger. It focused only on technology and relied on huge quantities of climate damaging inputs such as agro-chemicals. Read the rest of this entry »

Paw Man Samsee with Samrat Thong-Iam, while on a Fair Trade Rice Speaker Tour with ENGAGE in Winter 2007 – These farmers visited with Seth Kroeck at Crystal Spring CSA in Brunswick, ME

At age 59, Pawh Man sits outside his daughter’s house and patiently awaits his interview. Wrinkles cut deeply into his tan skin and the tranquility of his mind penetrates through his eyes. The rice farmer’s physical appearance is a testament that life does place the heaviest burdens on those of us who can bear them well. The two dark, half-moon shaped scars on each side of his stomach, are a manifesto to his strength, rather than a sign of his weakness. Read the rest of this entry »